


Dancing Alone

by art_ronan



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dance, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, F/F, F/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-07
Updated: 2021-02-07
Packaged: 2021-03-10 02:08:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,528
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27946541
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/art_ronan/pseuds/art_ronan
Summary: The Mighty Nein, but they're all dancers in a modern Rexxentrum. Also featuring: Caleb missing Astrid & Wulf, and Astrid & Wulf being in Ikithon's dance company.Molly's still alive in this one.Many MANY thanks to contrequirose (here on ao3), slightlyvicious (on Twitter), and others for helping me with ideas & editing!The AU was inspired by these two posts: https://twitter.com/JQuarze/status/1335206889429245957 https://twitter.com/JQuarze/status/1335550679696297986?s=09
Relationships: Astrid/Eodwulf/Caleb Widogast, Beauregard Lionett/Yasha, Fjord/Jester Lavorre, Yeza Brenatto/Nott | Veth Brenatto
Comments: 9
Kudos: 37





	1. First Dance

As Caleb entered the studio, he was greeted by a medium gaggle of small children rushing out of one of the rooms, including the familiar Luc, who came rushing up directly to him. “Mr. Caleb!”

“ _Hallo_ Luc, how was class?” Caleb smiled down at the bouncing child in front of him as said child’s mother came barreling out of the first studio, barefoot.

“It was fun!” Luc paused for a moment, and then pouted. “Mama wouldn’t let me be loud.”

Veth spoke up from behind Luc as she scooped him up. “Because there’s technique to being loud, and you know it. Now let Mr. Caleb go, he needs to go play piano for Miss Yasha and Miss Jester.” Luc waved and Caleb smiled at them both as he glided through the studio, opening the door to the studio Veth (and her various students) had come out of. There, he found both the lovely blue tiefling and muscular aasimar already warming up and stretching, having likely already been in the room at the tail end of Veth’s class.

“Hi, Caleb!” Jester greeted him brightly, her fanged smile infectious. He smiled back warmly & nodded by way of greeting as he sat at the piano and pulled out his music. Yasha smiled from her place at the barre and moved to the middle of the floor. Caleb shuffled his music into order as the two of them moved towards the center, ready to practice their routine for the winter solstice performance in two weeks. Soon, it would be time for them to move to dress rehearsals at the Rexxentrum Theatre, the same theatre where _they_ would be performing in _The Nutcracker_. He wasn’t sure what parts they would be playing – major parts, Caleb was sure, _he_ was probably the nutcracker himself.

Caleb shook himself out of that dangerous train of thought and turned to Jester & Yasha. “Is there a place you would like to start?”

“Can we just run it?” Jester asked, and Yasha nodded. Caleb nodded in response, placed his hands on the keys, and lost himself in the music and movement around him. Yasha, much as she was tall and muscular – she stood taller than he did, a feat in and of itself – moved with a grace you would never have expected from her. She moved delicately, like a flower waving in the wind, and landed like a petal, no matter how hard it looked like she would come down.

Jester’s grace was much more of a performer’s grace, learned rather than inherent, but only another dancer trained as long as any of them had been would notice anything amiss. She moved like a cat, carefully, every move calculated to get her to the next spot perfectly, looking lovely while she did it.

Where the two of them shined the most was the lifts. They were each strong enough to lift the other, and their choreography showed that. The final lift was the penultimate, when Yasha lifted Jester high above her head in an arc, Jester appearing the flow through the air like water out of a pitcher. Caleb had this section of the music down to muscle memory, simply because he watched it every time they did it – it always was beautifully done.

After around another hour of troubleshooting and moments of Caleb rising from the piano to adjust form, they declared themselves done for the day. Caleb cracked his wrists & knuckles gently – he had slight arthritis & carpal tunnel from hours upon hours of piano playing – and stood from the piano bench, collecting his music into his bag. “If you will excuse me, _Damen_ , I would like to take the studio for a bit.” He knew there was no class in the studio after this one, and would usually take the time to practice during this hour.

Jester & Yasha agreed, & they said their farewells, while Caleb began to warm up and stretch at the barre. Once they were gone, and his muscles were safely warm, he moved to the CD player in the corner of the room, and clicked in a disc. His favorite music to dance to started playing – it was ballet music, not modern, but no one was there to tell him otherwise – and he began to dance.

Anyone who watched him would see that he had once trained as a ballet dancer, which explained the Firebird music coming through the speakers, but also saw that he moved with the kind of grace often alien to masculine ballet dancers. He left his hair down – a sin in ballet – and it flowed out behind him as he moved. It got in the way of his spotting as he spun, but he knew well enough to keep his balance and not get dizzy.

Finally, at the climax of the music, he went into a series of pirouettes, and fell into a final, very modern pose, to scattered applause from the other side of the room. There, he saw a familiar set of faces – human and half-orc: Beau and Fjord. Beau was a street dancer, mostly doing hip hop, and she had begun to teach Fjord after he had started dating Jester. Caleb wasn’t entirely sure how well they were doing with that, but he did know that they would take the studio at random points, hence their presence at the door.

“Nice, Caleb!” Beau called out, and Fjord sort of grunted in agreement. Beau had, at one point, also been a ballet dancer, so she knew many of his moves quite well.

Caleb stood, brushing his hair out of his face, and gave a slight bow. “ _Dankeschön_. Do you need the studio?”

“You can keep-” Fjord was cut off by Beau covering his mouth with her hand.

“Yes, we’d like the studio, if you don’t mind.”

Caleb nodded and clicked the CD out of its player. He placed it back in its sleeve, scooped up his bag, and nodded to the pair as he exited.

He also nodded by way of greeting & farewell to the tattooed lavender tiefling & pink-haired firbolg talking in the lobby. The tiefling’s name was Molly, if he remembered correctly, and the firbolg was his roommate, Caduceus. Caduceus was a yoga instructor in the building next door, and was much stronger than he looked. He would come in when a class needed someone to show the proper form for lifts, and thus was an invaluable part of the studio, even if he didn’t officially work there.

The aforementioned firbolg waved – there was a combined intermediate/advanced ballet class in one of the studios in half an hour, Caleb knew, and it was likely lifts day – and the tiefling smirked in Caleb’s direction. Caleb stepped out into the biting cold of the city, and was on a bus home to his apartment quickly after.

His apartment was in a midlevel part of town, next door to one of the inns that had been there for as long as he could remember. Unfortunately for Caduceus, with his hypermobile joints, there was no elevator, but he would just sit down for a while after he got home. Caleb opened the door and flipped on some dancing lights – a light switch was across the room, and the cantrip was easier, what with it getting so dark so early in the day. He deposited his bag in its spot by the door, and set to work on dinner.


	2. Rehearsal Dinners

Caleb and Caduceus crunched through fresh-fallen snow on the way to the theatre – it was close enough to the apartment that they felt like they could walk, even as Cad was leaning heavily on his walking stick. The two of them walked in silence, Caleb’s dance bag steady against his hip.

Finally, after a longer walk than either of them expected (that’s what happens when it snows in Rexxentrum), the heavy mahogany doors of the theatre were before them. They went around to the side entrance with the ramp, so Caduceus didn’t have to push himself up the many stairs to the main entrance of the theatre. This entrance also connected directly to the main auditorium, where dress rehearsal was to be held. Caleb held the door open for Caduceus, and they stepped into the dusty hall.

When Caleb actually looked on the stage, he nearly fell over in shock. There, lifted high off the ground, in a glorious sparkling golden & purple costume, was Astrid – and she was held up in Wulf’s arms, amidst a smooth arc that was no longer very smooth as the door shut; Wulf saw Caleb and nearly dropped Astrid. Nearly being the operative term – he quickly caught himself (and her) and lowered her into the dip immediately after.

Somehow, the aging dancemaster did not notice Caleb and Caduceus’s arrival – he was much too focused on Wulf’s mistake. “Again!” shouted the jaundiced man. “From the top!”

And thus, the Pas de deux of the Sugar Plum Fairy and her prince began again.

“Well, I guess you know what roles they’re playing,” Cad rumbled from next to Caleb while they arranged themselves into seats to wait for the rest of the company. Caleb nodded, speechless, as he settled into a chair next to his roommate & started putting his music in order. They were going in order of the program in rehearsal tonight, which meant he was needed at varying points in the show.

Slowly, the rest of the group entered and began taking seats around Caleb and Caduceus – Beau, Jester, and Fjord came in together about 15 minutes before the dress rehearsal and sat down behind the pair, Yasha and Molly came in quickly after, sitting next on Caduceus’s left. Yeza, Veth, and Luc were, of course, nearly late, and arrived as the other company began packing up to leave.

As the dancemaster for their company, Yussa, began collecting everyone to begin on the stage – Veth’s class of students was up first, and Luc needed to be onstage very quickly, but Yeza would not let him go up without straightening _every aspect_ of his costume – Astrid and Eodwulf began leaving. As they left, Caleb noticed them holding hands, and he noticed both of them looking towards him longingly (mirroring his own expression, though he himself could not see it). He lifted his hand quietly, and both of them looked away and sped up a little bit.

Caleb felt a hand on his arm, and looked up to see Beau looking at him with worry. “You good, man?”

He took a deep breath. “…. _Ja_ , _ja_ , I am fine.”

She looked at him suspiciously but dropped the subject.

A couple acts later, Caleb rose and moved towards the piano. He settled in on the bench and spread out his music, cracking his knuckles before he began. He lost himself in the music, as the young dancers moved on the stage. Their movements were with far less grace than his friends, but they also had many fewer years of training.

After a few songs, and a couple breaks, and some troubleshooting and sectioning, Beau and Fjord were on the stage in front of him, wearing hip hop costumes – navy blue baggy pants, Beau (as usual) in a crop top, Fjord in a dark grey t-shirt, and both of them in massive sneakers. He sat back a bit as their music started to watch them perform.

Fjord mostly did simple moves – Beau was kind of the star of this particular show – but they meshed together well, even as they had to go back in a couple times to fix some blocking that had changed from studio to stage. During it all, he could hear his friends whistling and applauding for their friends up on the stage.

A few more acts went up to rehearse, Caleb had a few more songs to do, and then, towards the end of rehearsal, Jester and Yasha stood on the stage, ready to perform. He heard a hush go over his chaotic group of friends as the pair stood in their opening pose, their delicately draped costumes hanging off of them like the petals of an iris. His hands brushed over the keys lightly, Yasha nodded to him, and the music began.

Somehow, they did not need to troubleshoot the performance – it simply flowed together into a whirl of grace and height as they moved almost like one being separated into two parts. Finally, as Caleb looked up onto the stage, his hands nearly faltering on the unfamiliar piano, Yasha lifted Jester up into the air, Jester’s horn jewelry shining brightly under the lights. Caleb heard a small gasp out of someone in the group – likely Beau, her crush on Yasha was _not_ unknown to him by any means – and Jester smiled from the end of her arc as she was placed onto the floor.

They exited the stage after a bit of conversation with the dancemaster and Caleb rose from the piano (they were his last song), collected his music, and returned to his seat next to his roommate as Yussa directed the next act onto the stage.

His phone buzzed soon after.

_blue_raspberry_ 💙🍩💙: dinner after rehearsal?

_poppop_ 💥💯💥: i’m in. same diner?

_blue_raspberry_ 💙🍩💙: duh

_the_braincell_ : I’ll take Luc home & make us both dinner there

_xbow_bolts_ ⚡💋⚡: i’m going to the diner

_seaman_ : if y’all’re going to the diner, i will

_deadpeopletea_ : yeah, that sounds nice

_lady_lightning_ : i will too

_firebird_ : ja

_pea_cock_ : i’ll meet you there

Caleb put his phone down and watched the final act of rehearsal before the lights came up and Yussa clapped twice. “Alright! Same time tomorrow, but no rehearsal on Folsen because that is opening night of _The Nutcracker_! While they are a rival dance company, I hope you will all be willing to support them. See you then!”

The lights in the theatre came up and Caleb began collecting himself & his stuff, along with the rest of his group. Caduceus heaved himself upwards, using Caleb’s shoulder and his walking stick for balance. “To the Grim Shelf?” he rumbled.

Caleb nodded and everyone else made noises of agreement, so the gaggle of friends started their journey out into the snow.

They made it to the Grim Shelf Diner – which was as much of a dive as the name made it sound – in an indefinite period of time. Even with Caleb’s keen mind, it was sometimes difficult for him to keep track of how long things took when he was in this group of far too energetic people. They made it inside, immediately blowing into their hands and rubbing them to try and warm up, and a hostess approached to ask how many. After some counting, they determined it would be a table for eight, and they waited for the poor staff to push together a pair of tables to make an area big enough for all of them.

Once they were seated, they waved away the menus and ordered their food immediately, as Mollymauk rushed in, as always, fashionably late. He sat down at the final empty seat next to Yasha, and the conversation immediately got 10x louder. Caleb always felt bad for the servers when they took over the diner, especially when they all showed up after a performance in full costume, covered by legwarmers and hoodies.

Eventually, as dinner began to wind down, Beau spoke up. “So we’re all going to opening night of _The Nutcracker_ together, yeah?”

Everyone made noises of agreement, and Caleb very quietly went “ _Ja_ , we are.”

“You good, man?”

Caleb inhaled deeply. “Astrid is the Sugar Plum Fairy.”

“Ah.”

The conversation lulled for a minute, until Jester went “Do we want to go somewhere fancier for dinner on Folsen? I can ask my mama to send along a little extra money and we can all go together, since we’ll be all fancy.”

Beau made noises of disgust, but stopped very quickly after Yasha spoke up softly. “I think that would be very nice.”

There were further noises of agreement (they made a lot of those) and it was determined that they’d go to Camarouth Cottage around an hour and a half before the performance. With that determination, they all began to rise from the table and give each other their customary hugs before leaving for their own apartments.

Caleb and Caduceus rode the bus home in near silence, and that continued up the stairs to their apartment, aside from Cad’s pained grunts. Once the door to the apartment shut, Cad hummed slightly to get Caleb’s attention.

“Will you be alright?”

“ _Ja_ , I am fine.”

“No, I mean when we see the ballet. Will you be okay to see them?”

Caleb paused. “I think I will be fine.”

Cad stared at him for a minute before he nodded silently and limped into his room. Caleb followed suit quicky after, barely bothering to change into his pajamas before he just completely fell over into his bed, exhausted.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> shit's getting interesting now. enjoy  
> also the posting schedule is gonna be Fucked, i'm on break and my writing times are weird. sorry


	3. Old Companions and New Performances

Folsen came, and Caleb spent the entire day straightening up the apartment, even though he knew he would regret that much movement the next day. He was wearing all his braces, and asked Caduceus to redo the kinesiology tape on his back, but he knew there would still be regrets.

Finally, at around mid-afternoon, Cad managed to sneak up on and startle Caleb with a soft suggestion. “Perhaps the apartment is clean enough, and it is time to get ready for dinner.”

Caleb nodded, and gingerly moved to his room – he had twisted his ankle mopping earlier in the day.

About half an hour later, the pair exited their rooms at the same time, both of them leaning heavily on mobility aids – Cad on his walking stick that was taller than he was, and Caleb on a beautiful twisted wooden cane that Beau and Yasha had made for him together. Caleb still wasn’t sure when they’d picked up woodworking, but he wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Caleb straightened his long black coat and finally looked at his roommate – Cad was, as usual, in pastels; he wore a mint green suit jacket (with tails) and pants tucked into dark grey leather boots. Under the jacket was a medium pink vest and white cravat, to the point that you nearly could not see his white dress shirt. Caleb didn’t look too bad himself, though that was the highest praise he’d ever give himself – he wore a long black coat, under which was a black vest over a deep burgundy dress shirt. His pants and boots were also black, remnants of a time when black was most of what he wore outside of his dance costumes.

To their surprise, Veth and Yeza were waiting for them when they got to the lobby of their apartment building. Veth, though you could not see the bodice under her thick winter coat, wore a flouncy yellow dress and tall white heels. Yeza was wearing a simple light grey suit, which Caleb could swear was the suit that Veth had said was his wedding suit.

“Hello, Caleb, hello, Caduceus! We left Luc with a babysitter, so we could make this a proper date night, and thought we’d meet you here for the walk. It’s more fun in a group.” Veth smiled up at Caleb, her arm linked with Yeza’s. “Shall we?”

Caleb and Cad looked at each other and nodded, and the walk began, silenced both by Veth’s knowledge of Caleb’s past and the snow that was falling to form a picturesque view of the city.

By the time that they arrived at Camarouth Cottage, Fjord, Jester, and Beau were already waiting. Fjord and Beau had followed suit (ha), and Fjord wore a navy blue suit with epaulets & tall black boots, which mirrored Beau’s boots that had her grey pants tucked into them. Her vest was also grey, and her cravat was a cobalt blue. For some reason, she had chosen not to wear a jacket, but she didn’t seem to be any worse off for it.

Jester, on the other hand, was in a floor length evening gown with a white fur wrap around her shoulders. She would have been the absolute picture of elegance, had her dress not been a bright bubblegum pink. She still looked elegant, to be sure – the pink just took Caleb aback a little bit.

“Did anyone make reservations?” Fjord asked, though it was a little late for that question.

Jester nodded in response. “I did, Fjord, the morning after the rehearsal where we went to dinner.”

Fjord simply nodded back, and there were a few murmurs before Beau spoke up. “Yo, guys, I’m a little cold. Can we go in and wait for Yasha and Molly there?”

“That is what happens when you do not wear a coat in Rexxentrum, Beau,” Caleb pointed out, but he moved with the group as everyone went inside. His ankle and knees were all bothering him, and he needed to sit down.

After the group had been seated at the table that was prepared for them, they all decided on drinks & waited for Yasha and Molly. The pair appeared as drinks were being served – to no one’s surprise, Cad had simply ordered “tea”, and had no idea what he was going to get – and Beau looked like she was about to fall over as soon as her eyes landed on Yasha.

Molly was in true peacock form, as he often was, in deep purple pants that matched his hair, a collared shirt with the top two buttons popped and sparkling cufflinks, tall black boots (that seemed to be a theme with this group, though Molly’s were heeled), and his signature embroidered coat.

Yasha, on the other hand, was in as few colors as she could possibly manage, with an off-the-shoulder black dress with silver embroidery across the collar, the hem, and the slit along the left side of the skirt, with complementing silver heels & a silver and black clutch.

“Uhhhhh… Hi, Yasha,” Beau finally stammered out.

“Hello, Beau.” Yasha smiled as she took a seat next to the blushing dancer.

Once Beau collected herself & food had been ordered, dinner continued without a hitch. When the bill came for all nine of them, Caleb felt a hitch in his throat as he passed it to Jester, who was holding out her hand and making a beckoning motion.

“I got this, guys, Mama sent me extra money.”

“Are you sure, Jester?” Veth asked, already reaching for her purse.

“Yeah, of course! Mama wanted to make sure we could all get everything we wanted.” Jester smiled at all of them as she placed her card in the black folder and handed it back to the waiter.

It was finally time for them to leave for _The Nutcracker_.

Caleb had to take a deep breath before stepping directly into the auditorium from the ramp and going to find their seats. The group was sitting very close to the stage, but Caleb, as usual, was in the seat that was just barely out of the light of the stage, so (hopefully) Astrid and Eodwulf would be unable to see him. They settled in as a cluster, rather than one long row, with Veth and Yeza in the row closest to the stage.

After around 20 minutes of anxious waiting, the lights went down and the overture began.

Most of the show was a blur for Caleb, until they reached the second act, and the Pas de deux. He leaned forward in his seat and watched intently as Astrid and Wulf gracefully approached each other and began their dance.

It was during the spotting of her pirouettes that Astrid spotted Caleb, and looked him directly in the eyes. He didn’t know how she saw him – he was out of the lights, and he knew how blinding the lights were from the stage – but she did, and he saw the minutest of falters in the plastered happy expression on her face. He couldn’t tell in what direction it was faltering, but it was.

Caleb could not take his eyes off of either of his former dance partners as they moved across (and above) the stage, and realized at various points that he needed to remember to breathe.

The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy went similarly, with Caleb forgetting to breathe and Astrid moving with a beautiful grace across the stage (and Caleb being unable to take his eyes off of her). During that dance, Caleb also was able to get a closer look at her costume. Her costume had a high neck, and there were flowers and gems glued to her neck, covering what he remembered was where the burning stage lights had hit her when he dropped her.

When he realized what the flowers and gems were covering, he gripped the arms of the seat, and felt Caduceus gently touch his shoulder. He turned to him and saw the look of worry on his face, so he gently relaxed his hands (but not the rest of him) and looked down at his lap for the rest of the song, trying desperately not to think about _that_ , not to think about _her_.

Finally, the show came to the end, and the auditorium stood up with raucous applause, especially when Astrid and Wulf came out to do the bows. The nine friends were among them, cheering and whistling (Beau was mostly the one whistling), even though that wasn’t necessarily fit for a ballet.

Caleb peeled off from the group as they left, and bought a bouquet of pink and yellow roses, and asked that a single red rose be put into the center of it. He addressed it to “Sassa and Wulf”, and left no name on the note.

He caught up with the group outside, as they all got onto a bus (it was late, and they did not want to walk), he sat near the window, looking outside wistfully at the theatre. Suddenly, the massive mahogany door burst open, and he saw Astrid rushing out, clutching the bouquet of flowers. She searched the sidewalk in around her, before their eyes met through the bus window.

She looked up at him with tears in her eyes, and simply lifted a hand to him. He pressed his hand to the bus window and mouthed “Sassa” back at her, his eyes very much reflecting hers. As the bus pulled away, he saw Wulf coming out after her, calling for her and telling her to come back inside.

Astrid stared at the bus, and Caleb out of the bus, as it pulled away, until neither of the pair could see the other anymore.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry that this took so long to upload! I'll try my best to be on a better posting schedule, but classes are starting up again soon.
> 
> Also, yes, I'm spelling it Eodwulf, and will be doing so until such time as Liam O'Brian himself comes to fight me.


	4. Emotional Aftermath

Caleb could barely sleep that night, tossing and turning in bed, finally ending up on his side – an act he knew he would regret in the morning. He drifted off, finally, around 3 am, able to hear Caduceus snoring in the neighboring bedroom.

_He was on stage again._

_It was so long since he’d been on stage, and yet, here he was. He blinked, and he realized what stage it was – he saw Ikithon in front of him, watching him intently, and felt a weight in his arms. He glanced upward, and there was Astrid, high above him, gracefully in her pose above him._

_His breath suddenly hitched and he felt panic rush into him – and felt his arms go limp. He watched helplessly as Astrid went crashing down into the ancient stage lights, shattering a few and singeing the top of her leotard. The panic set in completely and he reached through the broken glass, shouting “Astrid! Astrid I’m so sorry, so sorry, so sorry…” He pulled her up out of the glass and burning and held her close to his chest, pressing broken glass into his arms while he completely ignored the pain.  
“Get out.”_

_Caleb looked at his former dance director as he clutched his love. “What? She needs help, I need to help her, can’t you call a cleric?”_

_“I said, get out. You are no longer welcome in this dance company. I will tend to her, you simply need to leave.”_

_“No, I won’t, I won’t, I won’t….”_

Caleb woke up in a cold sweat as his dream suddenly cut out. Unsurprisingly, his shoulder was screaming in pain, and his arm was entirely numb. He rolled over onto his back, clenching and unclenching his fist until he could feel the pins and needles that meant his arm was coming back to him. He lay in the dark for a while before turning his head to check the clock – 5:39.

He sighed, knowing sleep would not come to him again, even though he had only gotten two and a half hours, and he rolled out of bed – nearly literally; he nearly didn’t put his legs out under him in time to catch himself before he stood. He tiptoed out of the bedroom, quietly, so as hopefully to not wake Cad (who was snoring in the other bedroom still), and started the process of breakfast in the kitchen.

He had decided today was a day to make muffins, so that’s what he was doing. He flinched at every beep the oven made as he preheated it, as well as every other sound that he made, creeping gingerly through the kitchen in his attempts not to wake his roommate.

Eventually, the smell of cornbread muffins permeated the apartment, and the sun finally started to rise as the oven _almost_ started beeping their doneness. Caleb had been watching the oven and turned it off when it hit 1 second left. Even with all his precautions, however, he realized that the snoring from the second bedroom had stopped.

“Caleb?” came the deep voice from directly behind him. Caleb jumped, almost dropping the tray of muffins, and whipped around, nearly hitting Caduceus with said piping hot tray of muffins. “Why are you – oh. Bad dream?”

Caleb nodded, and carefully set the tray down before he _actually_ dropped it on someone’s foot. “Dreaming about _that_ , again.”

“Ah.”

They stared at each other for a few minutes before Caleb turned back around and started flipping the muffins up so they wouldn’t get soggy. “Want a muffin?”

“Sure.”

Caduceus made tea for himself and coffee for Caleb (half-caf, Caleb’s mediocre heart couldn’t take any more caffeine than that, no matter how much he needed it) and settled across the table from him. “Will you be okay for rehearsal today?”

“I think so.” Caleb gratefully took the coffee and sipped it.

They finished the rest of their breakfast in silence, and Caleb started packing up his music (not that it _needed_ to be packed, it was already so well-organized) for rehearsal.

About an hour later, the two of them were standing in front of the theatre (again), the snow coming down softly around them. Caleb opened the side door up the ramp for Cad and his walking stick, and the two of them stepped into the deserted main hall. They settled into the plush velvet chairs in their usual spots, and Caleb started applying his wrist braces when both his and Caduceus’s phones buzzed.

_poppop_ 💥💯💥 _:_ do we still have rehearsal today?

_seaman:_ yes beau

_poppop_ 💥💯💥 _:_ shit.

_firebird:_ ja, did you forget?

_poppop_ 💥💯💥 _:_ ….maybe

_lady_lightning:_ to be fair, i did too

_pea_cock:_ well maybe if you two hadn’t gone home together, you would have remembered

_pea_cock:_ i did not enjoy being kicked out of my own apartment

_blue_raspberry_ 💙🍩💙 _:_ wait beau is that why you didn’t come home?

_poppop_ 💥💯💥 _:_ maybe

_poppop_ 💥💯💥 _:_ i’ll see all of you in 20

Right as that conversation ended, Luc burst into the theatre, followed quickly by Yeza, desperately trying to calm his son down. Veth followed close behind, her phone in her hand, which Caleb could only assume meant she was reading the conversation that had just happened.

Sure enough, his phone buzzed right as she put her phone away.

_xbow_bolts_ ⚡💋⚡ _:_ yasha how could you, i thought we had something

Caleb sighed and put his phone back down, turning around to greet Veth. “ _Hallo_ , Veth. How was your morning.”

Veth grinned. “Luc had archery practice this morning.”

“Ah.”

She settled in next to Caleb, and Yeza eventually wrangled Luc into a seat between him and Veth. “Hello, Caleb.”

“ _Hallo_ , Yeza.”

As promised, 20 minutes after that message was sent, Beau burst into the theatre, disheveled and obviously rushed into her costume, with Yasha not far behind her. Mollymauk swaggered into the theatre immediately after them, and Jester and Fjord joined them not much later.

Beau got teased incessantly after Jester arrived, Yasha’s pale skin nearly turning the color of the seats they were sitting on, until the dancemaster arrived and clapped his hands. “Alright everyone, it’s time for rehearsal! Once again, we will start with Ms. Brenatto’s class…”

Yeza straightened up Luc’s costume while Veth stood and began to usher her son towards the stage.

Rehearsal managed to go off without a hitch, and the crew recollected themselves in the seats, before discussing where they were going to go for dinner that night (once again, the Grim Shelf Diner), and they set off for their late-night meal.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wow! another upload at 12:30 my time? who knew!
> 
> i have no sleep schedule and i love my approximately 15 readers much too much


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